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Linux officially supports IPv6

The Linux kernel has had preliminary support for IPv6 since kernel version 2.1.8 in 1996, but only in the last week has the Linux Foundation officially stated that all major Linux distributions are now compliant with the US Department of Defense's requirements for IPv6 compatibility. This plan was set in motion in 2003 and specified that by mid-2008, all US government computing and networking equipment should be IPv6-capable.

The research was carried out by the Linux Foundation's IPv6 Working Group, led by Venkata Jagana from IBM, in association with HP, Red Hat, Novell and other companies. There are several different levels of IPv6 compatibility, from end-node through network server up to a router or Level 3 switch. "This is exactly the kind of work and collaboration that the Linux Foundation can facilitate, and which results in real technology advancements for the Linux operating system," said the Foundation's executive director Jim Zemlin.